The conference focuses on alternatives to car dependence and to the urban planning and management policies and practices which reinforce that dependence. The reduction of human impacts on the environment and the improvement of quality of life are the main objectives.

The tenth edition of the conference will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2011, and is entitled “Building Carfree Cities for the People, by the People”. Guadalajara shows a pattern of development common to many cities across the world, particularly in the global South: a rapid increase in car use in the context of accelerated urban expansion, limited urban planning, privatisation of public space, unconsolidated local democracies and deficient land management. This will be the second occasion that a TCC conference has taken place in Latin America (TCC VI took place in Bogota in 2004).

As well as an emphasis on liberating cities from cars so that people can once again be at the centre of their communities, the conference aims to empower civil society to campaign for policy reform. One of the main objectives is the sharing of experiences between people across the globe who have mobilised in their own communities in favour of ways of living which are environmentally sound, democratic, and that put forward alternatives to the consumer lifestyle which is leading us towards an energy and environmental crisis.

WCN and the local coordinators Ciudad para Todos and GDL en Bici are now calling on those interested in providing inputs into the programme to submit proposals. Carfree development and sustainable mobility are the core themes, although related issues – such as climate change mitigation and the social appropriation of the public realm – can also be addressed.